Video from Shiv Jayanti celebrations shared as people celebrating renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar

The video was shot during the inauguration of a statue of Shivaji Maharaj on Shiv Jayanti in Aurangabad.

The Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government on 29 June cleared a proposal to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.

Amidst this, a video is going viral on social media, which shows a huge crowd singing dancing and celebrating in front of a statue of Shivaji Maharaj. Users claim that this video shows the citizens of Aurangabad celebrating after the name of Aurangabad was changed to Sambhajinagar.

The caption of the video states, “This is how citizens of #Aurangabad celebrated, after their city was renamed to #Sambhajinagar”

Tweet Archive 

Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a keyword search on YouTube, which led us to the same video published on YouTube on 19 February 2022. The caption of the video states, “Shiv Jayanti 2022, Aurangabad Shivaji Maharaj Putla | Kranti Chowk.”

 This video was shot during the inauguration of the Shivaji Maharaj statue on the occasion of Shiv Jayanti, earlier this year.

Below you can see similarities between the viral video and the YouTube video.

We contacted a local page in Aurangabad named “Aurangabad Insider” whose founder Harshvardhan Shahi told us that the video shows the celebrations during the inauguration of the Shivaji Maharaj Statue at Kranti Chowk on Shiv Jayanti in February 2022.  

He also sent us several similar video and images of this celebration that you can watch here and here.

We also got in touch with a local photographer in Aurangabad, Sumedh Marathe who took images of this event. You can see the image below.

Local media also covered this event in February. The images were shared on Twitter stating that “Leader of Yuva Sena (Youth wing of Shiv Sena) Shri. Aditya Thackeray unveiled the equestrian statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Kranti Chowk in Aurangabad. Happy Shiva Jayanti to all!

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be False. The viral video does not show celebrations after the name of Aurangabad was changed to Sambhajinagar. The video dates back to the inauguration of a Shivaji Maharaj Statue during Shiv Jayanti in Aurangabad in February.